Closer Look

Our Beast arrived contained in a package made up of the usual black tray and a transparent cover.



It is not hard to see how the memory got its name. Albeit heatspreader design actually looks somewhat uncivilised, we are not certain whether the current two-color appearance is what potential customers might find attractive. That said, the green PCB is promised to be soon making way for a black one, in which case the all-black look could make these a lot more interesting.



Unlike T1 heatspreaders of the older days, the ones put on the Beast are much less complicated. For a start, these are made of simple sheet aluminium and as a consequence the modules are now significantly lighter and feature a lot less surface area for the heat to escape. To scalp these off the modules, one has to deal with a strip of thermal tape on either side, which would let loose without putting up any big fight.




Surprisingly, the heatspreaders have revealed that our 1866C10 sample is based on Hynix’s 4Gbit memory ICs commonly referred to as MFR, which at the moment are the only chips of such density known to be capable of operating at DDR3-2600 and above.
With production volumes that Kingston have to deal with, we cannot predict for how long the 1866C10 model is going remain based on MFR, but if you happen to get one of these kits at a later date – there is a way of telling whether your kit is Hynix-based without breaking the seal on the package. Take a look at the vertical code printed on each of the modules; if fourth symbol is H then you have Hynix and it is very likely to be MFR.



SPD chip on the 1866C10 version of Kingston’s Beast features information on the model and manufacturing date of the modules. It is also flashed with six JEDEC and two XMP profiles that are meant to make life easier when it comes to making memory work out of the box.
What we found interesting is that despite being sold as a matched kit, the modules have a five-week delta between production dates. With the same chips being used to produce higher-rated memory modules, we reckon that 1866C10 bin is blindly comprised of modules that have either failed higher specifications or were simply found excessive.

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Page 1 - Introduction

Page 2 - Closer Look

Page 3 - Photo Gallery

Page 4 - Results

Page 5 - Conclusion

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